


Essentials

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [17]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Comfort, Dinner, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Pandemics, domestic loki (marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:13:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23605102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: You still have to work, even here and now at the end of the world, but Loki does his best to look after you.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 8
Kudos: 150





	Essentials

Before all of this had started, you had quite liked your walk home after work. It let you decompress a little, let you get back in touch with your own mind and body as you walked through the streets after a long shift at work. Usually, you’d pass any number of interesting characters (this _was_ New York, after all) but almost always, they just made you want to smile to yourself. They were fixtures in your life, almost like landmarks on your way home, and it was nice.

But lately, the streets were close to empty, no matter what time of day you went out. Empty for New York streets, anyway. While you understood the reasons behind it, and you even appreciated your fellow residents’ commitment to dealing with the problem, it was unnerving. 

Your hours at work got longer and more draining. You were surrounded by people in a constant state of low-grade panic that always seemed to threaten to explode from beneath the surface. People were a little less rational than they’d been in the past, and a lot more of them took out their fear and anger and uncertainty on you. Your nightly walks became even more important to you, so you could try to work off some of your own shit before you inflicted yourself on Loki, who’d made the choice to hole up with you in your apartment instead of in the Tower with the other Avengers. You didn’t quite understand it, but you appreciated it nonetheless. You took one last deep breath of the crisp early-spring night air and stepped inside.

Even on the ground floor, the air in your building was filled with the lovely scent of tomatoes, onions, and garlic. That was something you’d always kind of loved about living in a building with other people: you got to smell their cooking. Whatever this was, it smelled amazing. You took a short moment to acknowledge your jealousy before mounting the stairs to your floor.

The smell only grew stronger. By the time you got to your door, your stomach was growling. Opening your door only confirmed what you’d been hoping all this time: Loki was cooking something, and it smelled amazing. You kicked off your shoes and, though you hated wandering your apartment while covered in the possibly-imaginary effluvia of The Outside, you had to go to the kitchen. Loki was there, stirring something in a pot. When he heard you in the doorway, he looked over his shoulder at you and gave you a brilliant smile.

“I’m making dinner,” he said, almost pointlessly. You just nodded dumbly at him, hoping that you were at least smiling. He put the spoon down and started to come closer to you, but you took a hasty step backwards and held up your hands to ward him off.

“Don’t come any closer,” you warned. “I’m filthy.” It was probably all in your head, but something about the general atmosphere of the world today made it easy for you to get a little too caught up in your compulsions.

Thankfully, he understood. He inclined his head at you, almost like part of a bow, and gestured towards the hall. “Well, go on and wash up, then. I want you in my arms.”

His words made you stand frozen for a moment, even as your cheeks burned. How did he do that all the time? He knew exactly what to say to make your insides go all wobbly and fluster you. He watched you stand there for a bit, and then his grin widened. That spurred you to action, and you turned on the ball of your foot to go clean up.

When you were done showering, and had changed into clean clothes for lounging around, you rejoined Loki in the kitchen. He was still standing at the stove, so you wrapped your arms around him from behind and hid your face against his back. You loved his body, the easy strength of his muscles, the smell of his skin. Somehow, in the past few weeks, his mere presence had become enough to quiet the storms inside you. You could only hope that you could do something similar for him, but you hadn’t yet gathered the courage to ask.

“Are you alright?” He put the spoon down again and made as if to try to turn around and hug you, but you tightened your own grip so he couldn’t. You weren’t quite willing to give up this peace yet.

“Tired.” You rubbed your cheek against the familiar plane of his back. “Life is draining.”

He made a sympathetic noise and tried once again to turn around. This time you let him. As soon as his arms were wrapped around you, it was like everything clicked back into place. He held you just right: tight enough to make you feel secure, not claustrophobic. You felt him kiss the top of your head and grinned a little bit wider. Several years ago, you would never have believed that Loki of Asgard could ever feel so...domestic and fluffy, but here he was, and somehow he was yours. He rocked a little from side to side as he held you. There were so many things you wanted to tell him, but this peace was too precious to break. 

After some time—it was hard to tell, exactly—he squeezed you just a little tighter and then stepped away. “Dinner’s nearly done. There’s wine on the table there; you could take it to the living room while you wait, if you’d like.”

Indeed, he’d poured two glasses of wine while you were showering. Yet again, his thoughtfulness gave you butterflies, and it was hard to find the words to thank him. Instead, you stretched up onto your tip-toes to kiss him, which only made him wrap his arms around your back again as he sought to deepen the kiss. 

When you pulled away, you were beaming—and so was he. Rather than going and sinking into your couch, you pulled out a chair at the dinner table so you could keep him company. Loki asked all the right questions about your day, and responded exactly right when you told him about the people you’d had to deal with. He knew exactly how to let you vent without getting you so worked up that you couldn’t enjoy the rest of your night. By the time he set a plate down in front of you, you were starting to feel better. The two of you continued to chat as you ate. You always felt a little bad when you had to go to work and leave him here alone, but he always found ways to entertain himself, and when he filled you in at the end of the night, he always did it in a way that made you laugh.

You wouldn’t have expected this from someone who had grown up in a palace, but Loki was a hell of a cook. Dinner was every bit as phenomenal as the smell in your building had led you to believe, and you ate until you couldn’t eat anymore. When you finally put your fork down, Loki reached to pour you a little more wine.

“You are amazing. That was _amazing_. I can’t believe how lucky I am. Thank you.” Your words felt silly and even mediocre compared to what he deserved to hear, but maybe English didn’t have the right words for him. In any case, his cheeks did go a little pink as he looked down at the table in front of him. Was it his turn to be flustered?

“Of course. You work so hard, love. I wanted to take care of you tonight. I know your job is difficult right now, but you keep going back again and again.” He reached out to take your hand in his. “You are fearless, love. And you’re holding up the world right now.” The intensity in his gaze made you want to look away but held you fast at the same time. He raised your hand so he could kiss your knuckles, and then smoothed his thumb along them. You almost wanted to giggle. Hearing those words from this beautiful, mysterious man as he sat across from you in your kitchen just felt...unbelievable. If he knew what he was doing to you, he gave no sign of it as he pushed onward. “You have the spirit of a warrior, dear heart. I know the world is doing its best to grind you down every time you go out, but you never quite let it. I am proud to know you..”

There was too much going on inside you for you to be able to just sit there and keep listening to this. He seemed alarmed when you pulled your hand away and rose to your feet, but relaxed a bit when he saw that you were only moving closer so you could hug him from behind again. It was safer like this, where he couldn’t quite see you and couldn’t really put his hands on you. You wanted to thank him, to return all those kind things he’d said to you, but they all seemed to get caught up in the whirling rush of emotions he’d started in you. The best you could do was hug him tightly and bury your face against the side of his neck. He seemed to understand.

A little while later, you found yourself curled beside him on the couch. He had one arm lightly around your shoulders as you nestled close to him. This was the perfect way to end a day like today. He scrolled through your Netflix account, kissing the top of your head here and there as the two of you looked for a movie to watch. One thing you could say for this whole global situation: it made your evenings really easy. On a normal night, you might have felt pressured to go out into the world with him, maybe dancing or just wandering the streets. As much as you loved doing things outside with him, there was a lot to be said for this: for cuddling beside him on your comfortable couch in your comfortable apartment and just...enjoying each other. 

By the time you finally settled on something, comfort and peace had long since crept through your body. Your eyelids felt so heavy. Soon, you gave up the struggle to keep them open and simply allowed yourself to doze against Loki while he held you. You had to work the next day. You had to work pretty much every day for the foreseeable future—there wasn’t much time off right now for people who still had to work—but even as you clutched at Loki’s shirt, causing him to close his hand around yours, you knew that you were going to be okay. He would help you be okay.


End file.
